There is a 454 big block under the hood of this 1954 Chevrolet Corvette. (Photo: Tom Jensen)

Final preparations are under way for the 12th annual Barrett-JacksonPalm Beach Collector Car Auction and all indications are that it will be a sensational event.

About 550 cars are set to roll across the block Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a spectacular and diverse assortment of cars and trucks. That’s up from about 410 cars last year. The vast majority of the cars will sell at no reserve, meaning the high bidder will win the car, regardless of the final hammer price. Fewer than a dozen cars will sell with a reserve, or a required minimum bid price to change hands.

Buddy Lazier qualified for the 2013 Indianapolis 500, but retired early on with a mechanical failure. (Photo: Phillip Abbott/LAT Photographic)

1996 Indianapolis 500 and 2000 IndyCar champion Buddy Lazier will attempt to race his way into the 2014 Indy 500 with a family-owned car.

The 46-year old Colorado native made his return to the Indianapolis 500 last year, but an early mechanical failure put him out of the race. However, the team have now had a whole year to put everything back together, and Lazier is confident that this year will provide better results.

The teams will be faced with challenges they didn’t encounter at Daytona or Sebring when they head to the twisty streets of Long Beach this weekend. (Photo Courtesy IMSA)

By IMSA Public Relations:

Prototype teams in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship will have a short window in which to excel, in Saturday’s Tequila Patron Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach (LIVE, FOX Sports 1, 6 p.m. ET).

Four of the teams will race a Prototype for the first time on the 1.968-mile circuit, while four additional teams raced there only in 2006. The team with a leg up on the experience side is Extreme Speed Motorsports, which raced its two Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b/Hondas at the circuit last year, finishing 1-2 in the P2 class of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrόn.